Sarkozy's Day 3 in India: Big nuclear deals firmed up

New Delhi: It's French President Nicolas Sarkozy's third day in India and the top on the agenda is signing up agreements on nuclear trade.

Last night, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Sarkozy met over dinner and the two leaders are believed to have discussed civil nuclear cooperation on which some agreements are to be signed. The final negotiating hitches have been crossed. (Read: PM hosts dinner for Sarkozys)

On the guest list were Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, SM Krishna, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Speaker Meira Kumar, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and the National Security Advisor, Shiv Shankar Menon.

Government sources have told NDTV that the nuclear agreement with French nuclear giant Areva is to be signed during President Sarkozy's current visit. A framework agreement with Areva will be signed for first two of the six nuclear reactors. (Read: Nuclear agreement with Areva likely to be signed)


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will address a joint press conference around mid-day. Also on schedule are delegation level talks.

What's on the agenda:

French government sources say a general framework agreement on nuclear reactor deal will be signed in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Sarkozy
India and France will also ink an early works agreement on nuclear reactor deal
Sources have also said that a point of no return has been achieved on nuclear reactor deal
India will respect Vienna convention on the nuclear reactor deal
The takeaways also include upgradation of 51 Mirage-2000; a framework agreement on this has been finalised
Also finalised is a cooperation agreement on short range missiles
France wants India to help it achieve its key goals for its period at the helm of the Group of 20, including an overhaul of the international monetary system
Apart from civil nuclear cooperation, the two leaders are likely to discuss a host of issues, including terrorism, during their official talks on Monday.

France is also likely to back India's membership to the Nuclear Supplier group (NSG) formally, in a joint statement expected to be issued on Monday.
Sarkozy's support to India for the NSG entry comes nearly a month after US President Barack Obama supported New Delhi's full membership in multilateral groupings like the NSG, the Missile Technology Control Regime (MCTR), the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.

But President Sarkozy has now said that India should comply with international conventions, which put the responsibility heavily on the operator. His comment that he hopes that India's Nuclear Liability Bill will follow the Vienna convention in the event of a nuclear incident may become a speed breaker in negotiations.

The Vienna convention says the liability of the operator is absolute, irrespective of fault. The operators of the reactors in this case would be the government-run Nuclear Power Corporation. But India's Nuclear Liability bill says foreign suppliers could also be liable. In this case, it is Areva, the company in which the French Government holds a majority stake.


Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sarkozys-day-3-in-india-big-nuclear-deals-firmed-up-70721?cp